Hyong Yi lost his wife to cancer one year ago and to mark the anniversary of her death he shared the couple’s personal love notes to remind people of what he believes is important.
“I understand now what it means to have love and not take it for granted,” the North Carolina native told WCNC.
Yi said the past year has been the hardest of his life and claimed that he “really would’ve liked to of stayed in bed for an entire year.”
“She was just a great woman. I did not fully appreciate how great and wonderful, loving and caring and thoughtful she was until I didn’t have it anymore.”
Yi distributed 100 love notes Friday, with the help of his two children, on the streets of Charlotte while hoping to remind folks to take a moment to cherish the love in their lives.
“50 from me, 50 from her. So the love notes end up being a conversation. I actually like that better,” he explained.
Yi was helped by two people who he says were “instrumental” in pulling him out of his grief; his daughter Anna and son Alex. Inside each note was a reference to 100LoveNotes.com, a website Yi launched to host digital copies of each note.
His message can be summed up by four words displayed on the front page of the site:
“Love fiercely. Love completely.”
But the results of Yi’s efforts didn’t end on the streets of Charlotte. The shared love quickly went viral on social media with the hashtag #100LoveNotes trending on Twitter.
“Just wanted to take a moment and tell you that I love you more than anything in this world,” Garret Tichy exclaimed in a Twitter post directed to his wife, Jenny.
Yi detailed his experience in an article in The Charlotte Observer, a day after sharing the notes.
He says he’ll honour his late wife again in 2016.
“What I wouldn’t give to have one more minute, even a minute to talk, hold hands and I want people to take a minute and reflect on that,” he added.
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